Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/145

Rh These quotation, which we might easily multiply, prove incontestably that the conspiracy was a real one in the eyes of Mazarin. It was for this that he used every effort to throw light upon this dark intrigue. After some time, he submitted the affair to the ordinary course of justice in the court of all others the most independent and at the same time the least disposed in his favor, the Parliament of Paris. It was investigated in conformity with every formality of law, and in the most careful manner. Indications abounded, whatever Retz may say, and it was not the fault of Mazarin if conclusive proofs were wanting. But, promptly warned by the trusty friends which they possessed in the court, as well as about the queen and Mazarin himself, the Importants had no difficulty in favoring the escape of those conspirators most compromised in the affair.

"I am not very well satisfied with the Chevalier du Guet," says Mazarin, "Brillet, Fouqueret, Lié, and twenty-four others have fled. It is supposed that they have embarked for England in a vessel which has been awaiting them for three weeks." Far from letting them escape at their ease, Mazarin long pursued them with an obstinate eagerness, even into Holland. The 16th of April, 1644, he writes to Beringhen, who was then on a mission to the Prince of Orange, "Advices have been given me that Brillet and Fouqueret, who are the two persons deepest in the confidence of M. de Beaufort, and to whom he has most freely opened his heart concerning the conspiracy against my person, have gone to serve with the troops in Holland, having changed their names, and let their beards grow, so that they may not be known. Brillet is called La Ferrière. I entreat you to use all possible diligence to prove whether this is true, and when you return, to give an order to some person to watch over their actions, because we intend to devise some means of taking them."